I signed the contract thinking it would be simple protection for us both. Katherine Byrne arrived with soot on her skirts and that sharp tongue ready to cut me down, but the forge heat between us tells a different story. My hand rests heavy at the small of her back, the document warm against her, and neither of us steps back from what this alliance demands.

She ran from one man to escape his claim. Now she faces mine, the one that demands she yield over my knee until every defiance melts into surrender. The low slung holster at my hip will brush her with every strike. The sheriff's office waits empty at first light, its stone walls ready to hold the sound of what I will do to make her stay.